Reading COMPREHENSION Instruction:

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Reading COMPREHENSION
Instruction RESEARCH -based guidelines for
K-12  
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Put Reading First Report

• Summarizes National Reading Panel Report (2000)
• --product of a Congressional mandate
• --reviewed 100,000 studies that met its
  criteria for scientific research
• --Measured achievement of specific skill(s)
• --Generalizable to a larger population
• --Effectiveness compared to a control group
  --Reviewed by other scholars and published

• Provides specific guidelines for instruction

• Having a major influence on policy and
  publishing

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Put Reading First Report
Phonemic Awareness identifying and manipulating
individual sounds in words
Phonics knowing the relationship between spoken
sounds and written letters
Fluency reading text accurately, quickly, and
with expression
Vocabulary knowing and using the words to
communicate effectively
Text Comprehension understanding what is read
reading purposefully and actively
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Another way of reading Put Reading First
Should all strands be taught equally?
Comprehension is the reason for reading. (Put
Reading First, p. 48)
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Another way of reading Put Reading First
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Another way of reading Put Reading First
COMPREHENSION
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Another way of reading Put Reading First
What about students in the upper levels?
Report focuses on Kindergarten through Grade 3,
the level at which reading instruction is most
emphasized and researched.
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Another way of reading Put Reading First
The effects of phonics instruction on students
in second through sixth grades are limited to
improving their word reading and oral text
reading skills. The effects do not extend to
spelling and reading comprehension. For these
students, it is important to emphasize reading
fluency and comprehension. (Put Reading First,
p. 18)
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Another way of reading Put Reading First
COMPREHENSION
Vocabulary
Fluency
Phonemic Awareness
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Put Reading First Guidelines for Instruction
Phonemic Awareness

• Should be a priority during Pre-K through Gr. 1
• Plan approximately 20 hours during entire year
• Assess prior to instruction to determine needs
• Small group instruction is most effective
• Focus on identifying sounds and one or two types
  of phonemic manipulations

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Put Reading First Guidelines for Instruction
Phonics

• Students should receive two years of systematic
  instruction during K-2 span
• Systematicdirect, explicit, sequential
  instruction and practice in consonant and vowel
  letter-sound relationships
• Students should apply phonics skills across
  other areas of instruction

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Put Reading First Guidelines for Instruction
Fluency

• Essential modes of instruction modeling and
  repeated oral readings
• Effective activities choral reading,
  tape-assisted reading, paired readings, readers
  theatre
• Independent reading should happen outside
  classroom
• Assessment formula words correct during
  1-minute reading total words read errors

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Put Reading First Guidelines for Instruction
Vocabulary

• Direct instruction is necessary for both
  individual words and word-learning strategies
• Teach 8-10 words explicitly and thoroughly per
  week
• Pre-teaching key vocabulary/concepts prior to
  teaching a text aids comprehension and retention

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Put Reading First Guidelines for Instruction
Comprehension
what to teach
The habits of purposeful, active, metacognitive
readers
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• GOOD READERS
• consider before reading
• what they already know about a topic
• what they know about a texts genre
• how fast or slow they need to read
• what they are looking for in the text
• National Center for Education Statistics, 2000

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• GOOD READERS
• ask while reading
• Does this make sense to me?
• What might come next?
• Am I using the right speed?
• What background information can I bring to the
  text?
• What could I do to better understand?
• National Center for Education Statistics, 2000

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• GOOD READERS
• decide after reading
• if they have read successfully
• if they should go back to the text
• if they should reread using a different
  strategy
• National Center for Education Statistics, 2000

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Put Reading First Guidelines for Instruction
Comprehension what to teach
Effective comprehension strategies and how to use
them
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Put Reading First Guidelines for Instruction
1. Monitoring Comprehension

• Metacognition helps students
• Be aware of what is understood
• Identify what is not understood
• Use fix up strategies to correct problems

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Put Reading First Ideas for Instruction
1. Monitoring Comprehension

• When students are having difficulty, ask them
• --where exactly in text difficulty is
• --which idea or concept is difficult
• When students realize they dont understand,
  have them
• --restate in own words what they know
• --look back or ahead in text

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Put Reading First Guidelines for Instruction
2. Using Graphic/Semantic Organizers

• Maps, webs, charts, etc. help students
• Focus on key concepts and relationships
• Recall information
• Identify common text structures
• Write summaries of texts

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Put Reading First Ideas for Instruction
2. Using Graphic/Semantic Organizers

• Before reading, provide students with organizers
  to fill in to help them understand while they
  read
• --main ideas vs. details
• --text structures (story maps)
• After reading, have students create their own
  organizers to
• --recall important information (chart)
• --understand relationships between concepts
  (webs, Venn diagrams, etc.)

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Put Reading First Guidelines for Instruction
3. Answering questions

• Responding to questions while reading helps
  students
• Establish a purpose for reading
• Focus attention and think actively
• Monitor comprehension
• Review content and survey understanding
• Understand question/information types

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Put Reading First Ideas for Instruction
3. Answering questions

• Identify places in text where you want students
  to think about
• --specific content or aspects of text
• --prior knowledge
• --affective responses
• Have students answer while reading
• Have students identify how the answer is related
  to text (explicit, implicit, scriptal)

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Put Reading First Guidelines for Instruction
4. Generating questions

• Asking their own questions about text, helps
  students
• Become more aware of what they know and need to
  learn
• Relate ideas and information from within and
  outside of the text
• Be better prepared for assessments

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Put Reading First Ideas for Instruction
4. Generating questions

• Before, during, and after reading, have students
  write questions that they believe should be
  answered by the text
• Have students identify whether the information
  needed is explicit, implicit, or scriptal
• Have students work in pairs or groups to
  question each other
• Review questions and answers for accuracy
• Have students use questions as a study guide

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Put Reading First Guidelines for Instruction
5. Recognizing story structure

• Identifying categories of content (setting,
  characters, plot) helps students
• Appreciate literature
• Remember details and sequence
• Understand themes

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Put Reading First Ideas for Instruction
5. Recognizing story structure

• Teach and assess students understanding of
  story elements (setting, character, conflict,
  theme, plot)
• Have students complete graphic organizers/story
  maps after reading stories have them identify
  the specific story elements and events

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Put Reading First Guidelines for Instruction
6. Summarizing

• Determining what is important and synthesizing
  ideas into their own words helps students
• Identify and connect main ideas and details
• Eliminate unnecessary or repeated information
• Recall information

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Put Reading First Ideas for Instruction
6. Summarizing

• Provide instruction in main idea and detail
  identification
• Provide students with models of summaries of
  informational texts
• Have students write summaries using skeletons

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Put Reading First Guidelines for Instruction
7. Activating prior knowledge

• Tapping into what is already known about a topic
  or drawing on related experiences helps students
• Understand what they read
• Feel more comfortable with texts

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Put Reading First Ideas for Instruction
7. Activating prior knowledge

• Preview texts with students and ask them to
  brainstorm what they already know
• Question them about related prior knowledge as
  they read

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Put Reading First Guidelines for Instruction
8. Visualizing

• Forming mental images of settings, events,
  characters, etc. helps students
• Understand what they read
• Remember what they read

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Put Reading First Ideas for Instruction
8. Visualizing

• Have students make a movie in their minds
• Ask students to describe how they picture
  particular characters, settings, events, etc.
• Have students complete charts or draw pictures
  conveying their mental images

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Put Reading First Guidelines for Instruction
Comprehension
how to teach
Provide direct, explicit explanation of
strategies and why they are important
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Put Reading First Guidelines for Instruction
Comprehension how to teach
Model (think aloud) how to use strategies using
various texts
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Put Reading First Guidelines for Instruction
Comprehension how to teach
Provide regular guided practice in using
strategies using various texts
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Put Reading First Guidelines for Instruction
Comprehension how to teach
Allow for independent application of strategy
use
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Put Reading First Guidelines for Instruction
Comprehension
when to teach
Teach strategies beginning in primary grades and
continuing through all grade levels
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Put Reading First Guidelines for Instruction
Although the basics of readingword recognition
and fluencycan be learned in a few years,
reading to learn subject matter does not occur
automatically once students have learned to
read. Teachers should emphasize text
comprehension from the beginning, rather than
waiting until students have mastered the basics
of reading. Instruction at all grade levels can
benefit from showing students how reading is a
process of making sense out of text, or
constructing meaning. (Put Reading First, p. 55)
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Beyond Put Reading First Special
Considerations for Gr. 3-12
Meet students where they are.
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Level 1 Struggling Decoder
Level 3 Responding Reader
Middle School
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Level 2 Non-Thinking Word Caller
Level 2 Non-thinking Word-Caller
Level 3 Responding Reader
Level 1 Struggling Decoder
Level 3 Responding Reader
Middle School
Level 1 Struggling Decoder
Level 4 Critical Evaluative Reader
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Complicates

• Selecting texts at an instructional level for
  all students

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Complements

• Shared readings
• Cooperative activities
• Strategy instruction

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Beyond Put Reading First Special
Considerations for Gr. 3-12
Dont underestimate the effects of motivation.
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Personal interest
Motivation
Success (or failure)
Cultural relevance
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Beyond Put Reading First Special
Considerations for Gr. 3-12
Have students write in response to reading.
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any kind of written response leads to better
performance than does reading without writing.
(Langer Applebee, 1987, p. 130)
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Beyond Put Reading First Special
Considerations for Gr. 3-12
Comprehension, comprehension, comprehension.
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Strategies shown to be particularly effective
with middle and high school students
Prior knowledge activation Self-questioning Summar
ization Graphic organizers Text structure
awareness